Associate

Larry S. Zelson has been an associate in the Intellectual Property Group since 2006.  Before joining the firm, he worked as a patent agent for a solo practitioner.

Intellectual Property Counseling.  Larry counsels clients ranging from large corporations to individual inventors regarding portfolio management, validity, infringement, freedom to practice, patentability, reexamination strategies, and ownership of intellectual property assets.  His extensive background as a mechanical engineer and graduate student research assistant enhances his ability to understand clients’ businesses and to interact with inventors and in-house attorneys.

Patent and Trademark Prosecution.  Larry prepares and prosecutes patent applications in a wide variety of technologies, both domestically and internationally, and assists clients with ex parte and inter partes reexaminations.  He interfaces directly with inventors, in-house attorneys, university technical development offices, and foreign associates in several countries.  Larry also conducts prior art searches to evaluate patentability and potential infringement issues.  Representative technologies include fuel cell structures, automotive steering systems, solar and LED lighting products, medical devices and diagnostic products, injection-molded plastic parts, cogeneration plants, vacuum-insulated cryogenic probes and cooling systems, sporting equipment, printing, telemetry, nanodevices, and computer methods.  In addition, Larry prepares and prosecutes domestic trademark applications.

Litigation.  Larry has been a team member on patent, trademark, and copyright litigations.  He has participated in formulating litigation strategy and has conducted detailed legal research and analysis, prepared motion briefs, and assisted in settlement agreements.  Larry has also participated in pro bono litigations, including a case involving electronic voting machines.

Engineering Background.  Larry has worked as a project engineer in both large and small engineering companies, where he designed equipment including oxy-fuel burners, bioreactors, and cryogenic food freezers, programmed PLC and computer-based process controllers, and wrote operating manuals and design guides.  His graduate thesis research involved the measurement and modeling of hydrocarbon combustion reaction rates and required extensive use of spectroscopic and optical diagnostic techniques. Larry has also taught engineering and science classes at Northampton Community College as an adjunct faculty member.  He holds three issued patents on his own inventions.

Publications and Presentations.

“Patent Cooperation Treaty Practice,” Philadelphia Association of Paralegals Education Conference (2008).

“The Illusion of ‘Offer to Sell’ Patent Infringement: When an Offer is an Offer but is not an Offer,” comment, 154 U. Pa. L. Rev. 1283 (2006).